- FRIDAY TRANSPORTATION SEMINARS: Open to the public, our Friday Transportation Seminar series features multiple events each term focused on recent research and practices at the intersection of transportation and equity. We continue to carry this lens into our current and future FTS with a stronger focus on racial equity and featuring speakers from diverse lived experiences. See our YouTube playlist on past events focused on social equity here.
- BETTER BLOCK PSU: Adopted by TREC in 2019, the Better Block PSU program exemplifies PSUβs motto of βLet knowledge serve the city.β Integrated into PSU planning and engineering classes as an experiential learning opportunity, every year local community partners submit their project ideas for equitable placemaking, community building, and active transportation advocacy. Applications from organizations that support and/or are led by historically marginalized groups are prioritized.
- RACIAL EQUITY IN UNIVERSITY CURRICULUM: In the summer of 2020, transportation scholars Jennifer Dill (PSU), Kendra Levine (UC Berkeley), and Jesus Barajas (UC Davis) created a collaborative, crowd-sourced reading list for university curriculum to elevate anti-racism learning as well as BIPOC academic experts in the field of transportation planning and engineering. In Fall 2021 they updated this resource using community input. New materials include in-depth work on breaking down barriers to bicycling by Charles T. Brown, an Equity Dashboard from Transit Center; a new racial equity addendum to critical issues in transportation developed by the Transportation Research Board, and a UC Davis report that identifies 10 key themes of successful community engagement with historically marginalized communities.
- FUNDING NEW UNIVERSITY CURRICULA: Through our U.S DOT funded program, the National Institute for Transportation and Communities (NITC), we are investing in the development of new curricula materials for planning and engineering courses that center on the role of race in transportation. An advisory committee has been convened to provide an external peer review of curriculum proposals.
- TRANSPORTATION STEM FOR HIGH SCHOOLERS: Offered annually, our summer high school transportation camps are offered free to Oregon students and dedicate topics focused on transportation justice. We explore these topics through students' own identities and communities, as well as looking into the systems that perpetuate unequal transportation options. They read articles and participate in dialogue about how power, privilege, and oppression impact the ways we move through the world.
- EQUITY IN TRANSPORTATION BOOK CLUB AT PSU: Started in the fall of 2021, this book club is centered around mobility justice. The first book we are reading is Bicycle/Race: Transportation, Culture, & Resistance by Adonia Lugo. Open to current PSU students, staff and faculty, click here to join the book club. This book club is co-hosted by TREC and PSUβs transportation student group STEP.
In addition to what we're currently taking action on, we're meeting weekly and developing strategies and next steps to advance our goals detailed above. Transparency is important for this work, and this will be updated periodically.